Gerard Gallant met with the media on Thursday and said (NYR):
- Do you expect the push back from Tampa, “oh yea, they are going to be ready to play. You don’t win two Stanley Cups and not be ready to play at this time of year. We expect a push back, but we are going to play our game again and play the best we can and worry about playing our game.”
- On the physical stuff at the end, “Usually something happens when the game isn’t going well, but it was nothing major, a bunch of roughing and pushing and trying to set the tone for the next game.”
- On being up in a series instead of being down, “We take it one game at a time. We know that we won last night and we’re up 1-0 in the series but it doesn’t make a difference, it doesn’t matter how you get to it, whether its seven games or what it’s going to be, you just worry about the next game and move on and play the game and get ready for the next one and that is what we did today, a brief meeting with the players and an optional skate and get ready for tomorrow.”
- How has Mika’s game stepped up, “He’s played great hockey for us from the get-go and obviously he’s putting more pucks to the net and getting more scoring opportunities, but he’s played a great game from the first game of the regular season and he’s a two-way player that competes every night and gets his opportunities because he works hard.”
- Anything about the game last night jump out, “It’s feeling out the other team a little bit. We went seven with Carolina, seven with Pittsburgh and you get to know them pretty well. Last night they had a lot of time off, a lot of practice time, we get right back into it after one day off. You just play your game and try to play the same game every night and limit mistakes defensively and try and create and attack offensively.”
- Do you see them playing a better game as the playoffs go on, “last night was a real positive game for us. We’ve played a lot better hockey in the playoffs, for sure, we are just getting more confident every time we win a hockey game.”
- On the experience that the Kid Line is getting, “they have a huge impact since the playoffs started. We broke them up a few times because of different matchups and that, but overall they’ve been outstanding. The future looks real bright for our club, but I’m not looking at the future, I’m looking at the near future. Keep playing well and give ourselves a chance to win every night and those guys are a big part of it.”
- On his friendship with Jon Cooper, “Me and Coop got together, I think it was 2017 at the World Championships and we had a great experience over there, three weeks together over there, lunch and dinner together every day and so you get to know a guy real well. We had a lot of fun over there, enjoyed it and coached together and since that time we’ve been pretty good friends. Obviously texting each other a lot and I’ve been congratulating him a lot on winning Championships (laugh). That is great for him and when we won the World Championship last year he kept texting me. It’s great when you get a guy like that and friendship. Obviously we both want to win real bad in this series, but friendships are great to have around the league with people like that. He does a great job coaching, they had some tough years, when they lost four straight when they were favored to win the Cup one year against Chicago and there were tough years, tough building years and he paid his price and the last two years have been very successful with this team. He’s done a great job. “
- On playing at MSG, “the fans have been incredible and every game it gets louder and noisier and our fans have been outstanding for us. Our guys have been real comfortable playing in this building, we play real good hockey in this building all season long. They just keep thriving, the bigger the game gets the bigger our team gets and just keep battling and working hard and winning those little battles and that is the key for our group.”
- On how Tampa has won 17-straight after losing, “Obviously I read that they are 17-0 after a loss (laugh) doesn’t matter to me, it really doesn’t. They didn’t beat us 17-times, they beat other teams. We just gotta get ready to play our game and go play. We know they are going to be good and we know they are a great team, everybody knows that but it doesn’t affect what we are going to do tomorrow.”
- Is it normal to have friendships with other coaches, “I think it is, for sure.”
- What is it that connects you two so well, “I didn’t know Coop, met him over there, started chatting, got along real well for three weeks and there was a relationship built right away and we stayed in touch, had some success over there, lost in a shootout in the Gold Medal game. I just think that the more times you play each other you text and say hi and then it just grew from there. It’s not like we are spending summers together, nothing like that (laugh). He’s a nice guy, we had fun, I had to babysit him a little bit over there and take care of him (laugh) and it grew from there.”
- In what way did you have to babysit him, “I’m not telling (big laugh). We had a lot of fun.”